Folding-machine.



L. MUTHER & P. S. GLINES.

FOLDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION I'ILED'AUG. a, 1913-.

'fZi/ ATT'K rima an srnrns PATENT curios;

LGEENZ MUTHER, 0F NEWTON, AND FREDERICK S. GLINES, .OF LYNN, MASSACHU- SETTS; SAID GLINES ASSIGNOB T0 S AI'.D MUEHER.

FOLD'ING-MAOHINE.

t emes.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 8, 1918. Serial No. 783,769.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, LORENZ MUTHER and FREDE ICK S. GLINns, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Newton, in

the county of Middlesex and State of Masssv chusetts,-and at Lynn, in the county of Essex and said State, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad to the drawings accompanying the same and forming a part thereof.

Our improvements relate to new and novel mechanism for folding the edges of flexible material such as leather cloth and the like, and are improvements upon the invention of William F. Lautenschlager, as disclosed in application Serial No. 763,828, filed 'April 26, 1913, folding machines.

The objects of our invention are to provide a device to codperate with the feeding foot which will enable the operator to decrease the pressure on the feeding foot to permit a certain amount of slip upon the material being folded, the decrease in pressure to take place when material having a convex edgev is being folded, and further to provide a means for crimping or creasing the edge of the material being folded so that the edge may be uniformly puckered when convex edgessharply curving are being folded.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is an end elevation of a part of the folding machine with the 'pres'ser foot and slitting device and other parts removed so as to more clearly show the feed point and fold presser, Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the front portion of a'folding machine showing the feed point, feed roll and fold presser; Fig. 3 is a View of the fold presser removed from the machine looking upwardly underneath it; Fig. 4 is a side view of the fold presser foot shown in Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 is a view of a piece of material which has been folded showing convex curvature and showing the creases in the edge portion which 'was folded over upon the body part.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, 1 represents the upper portion of the frame of the machine and 2 the lower portion of the frame, which portions conterial, especially where the curvature of the edge is of the diameter of a small circle, it

is desirable that it be fed forward over short 4 point upon the material, so that it will slip on its surface and thus shorten the feeding movement. To accomplish this purpose we provide the following mechanism: The feed point and its operating mechanism in our improved folding 'machine is exactly the same as that shown'in the Laut-enschlag-er application, Serial No. i63,828, but with the following addition. To the feed point 3 and shaft 4 withits clamping collar 5 we insert a pin 6 in the collar 5 against which the cam surface 7 of the cam 8 will hear when the mechanism to move the feed point downwardly is at its lowermost point. The cam 8 is pivoted upon the pivot 9 and has a projecting handle 10 formed so that the fingers of the operator may press upon it and by depressing the handle 10 bring the cam surface 7 upwardly to a point where the pin 6 will. bear upon itand prevent the feed point 3 from bearing with its full pressure upon the material being folded. The lever 10 is held upwardly by means of a spring 11 which is mounted back of and secured by block 12 to the frame of the machine by the screw 13. The block 12 has a projecting portion 14 containing an adjusting screw 15 which may be adjusted up or down to permit the lever 10 to be depressed more or less to decrease or increase the pressure of the feed point 3 upon the material.

' The decreasing of the pressure of the feed point 3 upon the material to a more or less extent provides formore or less slippage of the feed point'on the material to shorten or lengthen the feeding movement of the material according as the curvature of the convex surfaces being folded is more or less. In

' conjunction with this device for increasing and decreasing the feed of convex edges of material we provide a creaser 16 which movably mounted in the fold presser 17 at its fold pressing surface 26. This creaser 16 has an an lar portion 19 which is shown in Fig. 1, with a hole in it so that it may be mounted upon the screw 20, and held down- Patgnted Mar. 31, rate.

. wardly by means of the -spiral spring 21, which, is mounted around the screw 20,,its-

upper 'end bearing under th ejhead' of the "screw 20 and'its lowerendnp'on the creaser 16. TO turn thes'crewQOi'in or out increases 1 or decreases the tension of the spring 21 upon thefcreasrhlG, thereby increasing or decreasing the ,depthgof the crease in the edge ofthe material .Thej creases are shown the material 22 as 23, 2 3,'etc. .The object of-providingthese-creases is so-t'hat the edge (if-the, material will .puc'ker regularly or' at 'regularfintervals and: inake a flatter surface at 'thefolded e'dgesith'an it would otherwise 15 reason that" several puckers might otherwise 7 doji'f-ithe materialfwas'not creased, forf'the come close together with intervals between the groups what were co-mparatively flat,

where the-several puckers come together the folded edge would beth ick and theintervals without puckers thin, thus producing an un-' even appearance. I

The oreaser l6 might be rigldlyattaehed to the fold presser end 18-and would work wery nearly as'well, but we prefer to flexibly 3 attach it as, shown at Figs. 3 and 4 so as to provide for increasing or decreasing the depth of the creases corresponding to the different -thicknesses of material being folded. 7

In operation the Cam 8 and lever lOforin- 'ing a parttofit' is shown in'position indicated in F 1g. 2, and this provides for'the fulh pressure of the feed point 3 upon the material, but when the convex curved edge is fed to" the feed point3, the finger'of the opera tor may be' placed upon the lever 10 and the lever depressed until it-comes in contact with the ad usting screw 15. This prevents the spiral spring 24 from-pushing the feed point i r 3 downwardly to its full throw, by reason of the pin G'contaCtin'g with the cam surface 7 before, the feed point has completed its full throw, thusrelieving the pressure upon the material, and this pressure upon the mate-. ria'l'may be adjustedby moving'the adjusting screw 15 up or down to decrease the- Copies of this patent may be obtained for fiv'e cents each, by addressing Washington, no."

are made .in' the edge of the material before the'fold' is pressed upon'the body of the material by the fold pressing surface 26;

The-angle and location of the cre'aser 16 may be varied withfreference to the edge 25 of the fold presser without departing from be rigidly attached rather than flexibly or cation of the'cam may be varied without 'de- .parting from-the spirit of our invention.

VVhat we claim is;v 1

1; In a folding machine, a

pressingop'eratibn? downward movement-of the lever 10. The creaser 16 it will be noted projects outwardly beyond the edge 25 and downwardly beyond the surface-26 of the fold presser 17, as shown in Fig. 4, so, that creases 'or crimps' the spirit of our invention; likewise it may 6O removably-attached and the shape of the" cam surface 7 of thecam 8 as well asthe l0-' feed point and movable fold presser combined with'means 'mounted on' the movable fold-presser for creasing and crimping the edge of'the mate rial being "folded in advance .of the fOld 'ZO In' a 1 folding .m'ac'hine, it'e'edingf. meansand a movablefold-presser combined. with yieldingmeans mounted on the'fold-pre'sser and projectingbeyond the fold pressersur of material operated upon in advance of the fold pressing operation;

. In witness whereof, we hav e hereunto set our hands, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this the fifth day of August,

' LORENZMUTHER;

FREDERICK S. GLINES.- Witnesses; 5 3 Y I .GEQRGE P. Bnoxronm 4 P. ELLIoTr l' the (Commissioner 'otlPateiitl,

faces thereof to cre'a se andcrimp the edge 

